Ono set for sophomore year at UC

Students feel connected to energetic president

Aug. 27, 2013

Santa Ono handed out his business cards to students and encouraged them to contact him if they needed help. / The Enquirer/Liz Dufour

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Santa Ono talks like a man who has free time.

He owns a tropical fish tank. He’s picking up his cello again and wants to read Oscar Robertson’s autobiography. He listens to the rapper Macklemore and says his teenage daughters “think it’s pretty cool.”

He says he wants to learn how to play – we are not making this up – the ukulele.

Except Ono, president of the University of Cincinnati, doesn’t have much free time. He’s up 20 hours a day running the region’s largest university and largest employer, charming everybody in his wake with thousands of tweets and an everyman persona.

Just like college presidents across the country, he spoke to thousands of incoming freshmen last week. The difference is, he says he’s already interacted with about half of them through social media.

It’s been a year since Ono, 50, replaced Greg Williams, who resigned. He says he’s getting used to the job.

“I know what I can do now,” he said a few days before the start of classes Monday. “I feel pretty rested. It’s not a good idea to be anxious if you’re running a multimillion-dollar corporation. There are challenges that come up, and you appraise the situation and do what you can.

“I don’t feel anxious. I feel excited. I feel energized.”

Ono has truly taken hold at UC this year. His latest initiative, called Creating Our Third Century, is to use a half-dozen strategic plans and map out a list of UC’s top priorities.

He seems to be everywhere, from the opening of a new dorm on campus to a community literacy initiative to a Friday night party to welcome students. Ono is so ubiquitous that some who know him privately question whether he will hit a wall, either when he faces an unpopular decision or when he simply can’t keep up the same pace.

“He’s cognizant that we have concerns, but he feels that he’s energized by what he does,” UC board Chairman Fran Barrett said. “We’re trying to get him as much help as possible. We don’t find anything left undone. It’s difficult, but the students really like it a lot. They feel connected to him.”

Supporters say Ono is empathetic but not soft. They point to difficult decisions he has had to make.

For example, he hired Beverly Davenport Sypher, from Purdue University, as provost this spring, even though interim Provost Larry Johnson was among the finalists. That’s the same job that brought Ono to UC in 2010 from Emory University.

Another tough decision: cutting money to some Ph.D. programs to invest in the most successful programs.

“He’s really shown that this is something he’s accustomed to doing and this is how he operates,” Blizzard said. “Students think that he’s there for them.”

This year, Ono has put action behind his pro-student rhetoric. UC froze tuition this year at $10,784 for Ohio undergraduates. Ono further declined any raise or bonus this year, and he said he’ll do the same next year. He makes $525,000 a year, and UC paid $172,963 last year to pay off the mortgage on his former home in Atlanta.

The hardest tasks of being president, Ono said, are when students get hurt or killed – like the death of two UC students after an off-campus fire on New Year’s Day.

He has filled about a dozen top executive jobs. One more is open after UC forced the resignation of Police Chief Michael Cureton. Ono wouldn’t elaborate on that decision.

He’s also had to learn about big-time college sports on the fly, as UC struggles to find a permanent conference home.

“Things come up,” he said, before jumping in his red Audi, license plate “CAT MBL,” for a meeting with Hamilton County commissioner Greg Hartmann.

“People make mistakes. It’s often the most difficult decisions where I have to weigh in.”

'MOST ACCESSIBLE PERSON' TO UC STUDENTS, PROFESSORS

A typical day for Ono starts in his Mount Lookout home about 4:30 a.m., when he scours media Internet sites and tweets to his 20,500 followers, and ends after midnight.

In between, he’s meeting with dozens of student, alumni and civic groups.

During one week in April, he received several thousand emails and answered many of them personally.

“This needs to be addressed quickly as she is one our most dedicated students,” he wrote to Senior Vice President Bob Ambach after receiving an email about a two-hour wait for a shuttle.

The Enquirer obtained the emails through a request under the Ohio Open Records Act.

“I am approaching you about a problem because you are the most accessible person I know at UC, so please forgive me if I am bothering you with something that is out of your hands,” wrote one student worried about a break-in of the cheerleading locker room.

Some of the exchanges included:

• One student suggested on Twitter getting a microwave oven in Langsam Library. Ono forwarded it to the university’s librarian.

• A parent asked Ono what he could do to eliminate panhandlers on Calhoun Street, a message he forwarded to UC Police.

• His wife, Wendy Yip, emailed Ono and his scheduler, asking that an appearance at an evening school function be added. “Evening is held after 5 p.m.,” came the reply.

• An employee told Ono about her father, who has been declared legally blind from macular degeneration. That is the focus of much of Ono’s professional research. Did he have any advice?

• A professor emailed Ono to thank him for personally lobbying to remove from the state budget controversial language on faculty work loads.

• Rafts of emails from stores, airlines and hotels, all offering the latest deals, plus Google alerts for “Santa Ono,” “provost” and every university he worked at or attended.

Insiders say Ono is not naive about filling every request, just determined to be responsive.

“It doesn’t concern me,” said Peter Landgren, dean of the College-Conservatory of Music. “Because in my 23 months here, this is the Santa Ono I’ve seen since the first time we met.” ⬛